Give Zheng Hehuizi the acting award she deserves ?

Ugly Beauty (2021) is a Chinese contemporary drama that tells the "ugly" and the "beauty" of the entertainment industry.

Do not let the somewhat cliché identical twins' plot exchanging roles put you off. This drama is one of THE best in terms of script AND acting!

Just look at the character poster of the female leads' actress, the one and only Zheng Hehuizi who played the roles of Yao Menggui - a rising starlet who is aloof and overly confident, and her twin sister Xiao Mu - gentle and caring countryside girl who now works as a delivery rider in Beijing.

After an accident, Yao Menggui had to leave and let Xiao Mu replace her for her graduation play. But things didn't go as planned, the pretending game went on and chaos followed.

Again, this may sound tropey for some but it's totally UNIQUE. The story-telling takes us to plot twists from start to finish. It's not as grand as those mind-boggling suspense dramas, quite predictable, too, but never one to not leave you surprised.

This will certainly not work had they picked the wrong actress to play this dual role. Zheng Hehuizi deserves to get acting awards, fame, and more challenging roles in the future!

Her portrayal of the twins still leave me in awe! She just switches between 2 personalities so seamlessly - even her tone of voice, and the look in her eyes changes. You can totally tell who is who! And what's more challenging? She has to act out like she's acting as the other twin while assuming that she's still the former one. And, did we even forget that in the drama, her profession's an actress?

Like, she's SUUUUPER TALENTED in acting 😍 And it's not the overpowering kind. It helped a lot that the male lead's acting and the second male lead's are both lukewarm and matches well with her energy. Overall, the acting is really good. Which it has to be, considering that the drama is about the acting world.

And speaking of the acting world, the drama has successfully tackled the toxic environment of the entertainment industry - fandoms, depressions, pretentiousness, dirty marketing tactics, and more. It tackles each issue carefully and teaches us lessons we should learn in the subtlest way. It's so well-embedded in the story.

Also, it's not just about romantic love. Love between parents, siblings, friends were also portrayed very well. Values such as being filial, honest, loyal, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Overall, it's such a beautiful story with not even one dull moment - 24 episodes are all jam-packed with plot, comedy, romance, and suspense. It's nice to see a drama that doesn't overly make one character evil but rather make them a 3-dimensional character with flaws and stories to tell.

MUST WATCH! 😍 I hope more people discovers this gem. And I want more Zheng Hehuizi 🥰 You can watch it on YouTube wuth English Subtitles.

PS. The OST is also a HUGE plus

Read More

It won the best TV Drama of 2019 for a reason

I was a big fan of The Longest Day in Chang'an and was surprised to hear that another drama bagged the 2020 Magnolia Awards Best TV Drama award instead.

So I became curious and checked out why it has topped TLDICA. And, 48 episodes? Finished it in 3 days. Got myself an iQIYI subscription so I can skip ads.

Here's why: The story is gripping and suspenseful and frustrating - in a good way. It's a MUST for crime/police dramas to take us into a premise that we can actually care about and this drama, inspired by a real-life setting, by a real-life event that once took the entire nation by storm, is one drama that you cannot simply put on hold - once you start watching, you have to see it right through the end.

This is the first time I've watched Huang Jingyu in a drama, and since I've watched some of his series afterwards (some of those shot and aired earlier than The Thunder) I must say that his acting decently improved over time.

But actually, this drama made me more interested with the older male casts, those veteran actors that delivered really great jobs with their roles. It was just excellent.

I don't care if some people say that this won because of the police image propaganda or what. It has that kind of feel towards the end but it was justified and knowing that it was adapted from a real police operation, it was worth it.

So yeah, I lost sleep for this one. It's really that good. Finished 15 episodes in one go and slept at around 3 in the morning? Still, worth it.

Read More

The CP is great but never trust a contemporary Chinese drama with 40 episodes.

It was a ride.

I was fine with a few misgivings here and there, with some anger issues the female lead character has, BUT just not the later 30+ episodes. The plot has taken a 180 and I feel like I might have missed at least one episode because there's no way Fang Wei became like that in an instant.

Nevertheless, maybe the drama could've done it without those stuff and just plain focused on the CP afterwards. BECAUSE THE CP WAS HOT. I never knew I needed Chen Kun and Xin Zhilei doing a fiery couple with so much skinship that doesn't feel too awkward.

It was understandable to some point (maybe it ended up this way because it's somewhat funded by the state/an organization to promote cloud computing or tech stuff) BUUUUUT they could've done it while tying up the plot towards the end a lot neater than the mess that it was.

I personally waited and anticipated this so well. I am also looking forward to the sales aspect as I am in marketing and is currently looking for inspiration. It was like that, at first, until it went on with the conspiracy that was Fang Wei. (I thought I'd like him all throughout the drama).

Overall, the problem is in the script. (And a few angles of the camera that was so WTH towards the end) What saved this was the acting. I did not sense any amateur acting. Only stupid script.

Final thoughts. Xin Zhilei and Chen Kun deserves better. Petition for another drama with better script. -_-

Read More

Worthy of the Title. Love love love it to bits!

I just love how this very short drama was able to cover almost every sensitive issue or taboos that the society face at the moment. And they did it in such a natural way that everything just doesn't feel forced or overly dramatic. This drama has given so much meaning to life, living, fighting for your dreams, and appreciate love, friends and family.

12 episodes. It was really hard to move on from this drama. Until they release the next drama under this series, I might not be able to comparr it to anything else. I do commend the actors a lot, too. That was some real acting! Very well directed. And the songs used are just perfect.

In each episode, I believe there will be moments when you'll find yourself sobbing. Maybe different times for different people. As we have different experiences that we can relate to. You might also need a breather after every episode. It is really very nostalgic. Never the one that drags unnecessarily though. It's just pure art. Go check it yourself and stock a lot of tissues 😊

PS. subs for Ep 4 onwards are messy but if you have watched way too many cdramas, you'll understand what they were saying.

Read More

Could've been better. But definitely not your ordinary spy drama.

I've been through a LONG drought of Yang Mi in drama land and Storm Eye's release this year just quenched it a lot. This has been anticipated by a lot of her and Zhang Binbin's fans albeit less expectations with the drama quality considering the genre and the production company involved.

First, I'll write about the good things I've observed in the drama:
1. It's different. It's a spy drama but the guns do not really appear until the latter part. There are not much stunts going on but they all did this as realistic as they could in terms of action.

2. It's also different in the sense of scope or on which area of "spy" they covered. This isn't narcotics or drugs but ores - minerals, rare resources, that are not often discussed or shown in contemporary police dramas. This could be the reason why some viewers might find it a bore, especially when we get into the technical parts.

3. The side characters' acting is pretty good. They really picked actors with good ranges and none of them stood out like a sore thumb (okay, maybe one or two but we love him/them nonetheless)

4. The CP is soooo shippable ♥ Yang Mi and Vin Zhang! We've loved them in Ten Miles and now they're FINALLY a couple. In all fairness, the way they sprinkled romance into the drama isn't so out of place. It's just about 30% of the show and yet it gives giggles and smiles. Lovely!

The not-so-good parts of the drama:

1. Come on, don't dress up like a SPY when you're doing missions undercover. Talk about alerting the enemy with all the actions/mannerisms they did.

2. There could've been a better script. RIGHT. The plot is pretty solid itself. They just went a bit off with how the script went for some important scenes and for most fillers. It becomes a bit predictable and unbelievable at some point. But still better than Memory Lost. LOL.

3. OST! How I wish they released proper OSTs for this one. Like, is this made in 2012? I kinda liked a more fitting OST for 2021, but if patriotism is the aim of the show, I kinda get it.

Too bad that this has been overshadowed by more trending works released during its run, but glad that it had pretty solid TV ratings in the mainland during its run. If you are a fan of Yang Mi, Vin Zhang, or any of the side characters, it's still a pretty good watch. Especially for those interested in these kinds of genre.

Read More

Gripping and Emotional. Finished this in less than a day.

16 Episodes of a roller-coaster ride. Wrapped with truth and lies. A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower could be one of Tencent's bravest productions that could rival iQIYI's Light On Series.

Things that I like was (1) how the story unfolds. Like, you are definitely 100% clueless just as the detectives are so you click next episode immediately after the last one just so you can find out what really happened. I also liked (2) the strong characters in the story. I was really beginning to worry about how they build up the villain until his episode has happened and everything started getting more tastefully complicated. (3) The acting is really well done. Angelababy actually did a decent job. Her voice conveys the right emotions and her face is okay too. Maybe it's really just that her facial features are too prominent? That's why she doesn't seem to be that much satisfactory for others. But she did a decent job here.

I rated it an overall 9/10 because although it's perfectly package, here are some things they could've done better:

1. The presentation of the feministic/social challenges women face. Most of it was repeatedly executed between the 2 detectives, which gets a bit old and cringey if they do it again and again, like Detective Yang was giving some Public Service Advisory instead of delivering her lines. Had they done it a bit differently, there could've been more impact with whatever message they wish to convey.

2. The ending has bits of plot holes that even non-pro investigators can actually point out. But, fortunately, it has been overshadowed by the building up emotions of the characters.

PS. Playing the OST now, it's so good. And I just wanted to applaud how brave they were when they included all the sensitive social issues they could possibly tackle with this.

Read More

Not even Yang Mi and Huang Xuan can make me finish this drama.

I am a huge Yang Mi fan and I do really like Huang Xuan as well. Add into this that I am a language enthusiast and would really like to take a look at the life and love of interpreters.

It started off well BUT goodness! The cancer trope was so cringey, Gao Weiguang was too cringey, the girl bestie was overdramatic. I cannot make it to the ending. I was only THREE EPISODES TOWARDS THE ENDING and then I decided NO! I can't watch this crap anymore.

It really started well. If you are to ignore the fact that Yang Mi and Huang Xuan didn't really learn French and the dubbing is really nowhere near to what's said. (Which is very SAD because that's the core of the show, they should've spared that much effort, right?)

And the OTP or leads are really shippable and likeable. I love them two! As individuals, as actors, as characters. BUT! the writing just have to be so messed up especially towards the end.

And Gao Weiguang's acting is just SO. I don't know, maybe he can just do roles like Donghua Dijun?

Anyway. it was the best drama of 2016? I mean, yeah it started really well but. Heavens! I really wasn't able to hit the ending.

Read More